Plants including many commercially valuable cultivars ranging from fruit trees and crop plants to ornamental shrubs are affected by a wide variety of microorganisms, including bacterial and fungal pathogens. These pathogenic microorganisms cause great damage, and a great deal of time and expense is devoted to trying to protect plants from these pathogens and/or to minimize the damage they do once they infect a plant.
Applicant's prior work has developed antagonistic microorganisms including mixtures of bacteria and/or fungi that may be used to fight and/or treat pathogenic microorganisms. A more universal approach is desired though, and particularly an approach that improves the efficacy of a broad range of antagonistic bacteria and/or fungi. Of particular interest would be a formulation that improves the performance of antagonistic bacteria and/or fungi under either pre-harvest or post-harvest conditions.
A need therefore exists for formulations that may be used to improve the performance of a wide variety of antagonistic bacteria and/or fungi under either pre-harvest or post-harvest conditions. The present invention addresses that need.